Reply #65: Interesting OP!

[ultraist]

Suburbs were created by the "white flight." Whites moved out of cities to be with their own kind. "Back in the 1950s, when you told someone you lived in the suburbs, you were telling them something about who you are," says William H. Frey, a demographer for The Brookings Institute who penned the recent study."

Surbubanites further congregated with their own kind economically. Suburbs are still in large part very homogeniuous but there is a trend for middle and upper income whites to move back to the cities in some regions. As minorities gain some economic power, they are moving out the the burbs but 92% of suburb populations remain white.

"'White flight', says Charles Gallagher, a Georgia State University sociologist, "is alive and well because the history of housing preferences tells us so."

The whites that are moving back into the city are seeking to be closer to the amenities urban centers offer. A rich and diverse culture: art galleries, museums, theatre, diverse schools, interesting restaurants, etc. The down side of this of course, is that many areas are being gentrified which displaces lower income urban dwellers.

"Contrary to the suburban sprawl being experienced by Georgia, large, urban cities like New York City are experiencing the flip side of the coin; 'white flight' to the inner-city, in the form of gentrification. Communities like New York's Park Slope and Harlem are in the midst of controversial and trendy rebuilding and "renewing" projects which attract the middle- and upper-class to these neighborhoods, often at the expense of the lower-income, often minority, residents, who end up displaced. "

*quotes from:
http://racerelations.about.com/library/weekly/aa063001a.htm